Sunday Service 5/15/2022

>> Good morning, church family. Happy Lord's Day. Happy Lord's Day. It's good to be with you, and I've just been meditating on just our gathering week to week, and so challenged by what we are doing. And we come week to week, and oftentimes it gets into a routine. And why we gather together is to come together as the body of Christ to gain motivation, to gain insight, to gain a rallying, so to speak.

Whether we're doing things that are difficult or things that are happening week to week that are difficult, and many of us are going through those kind of things. But this is a time where we can come and focus our attention on who God is, what he's done for us, that as we sing these songs, that we reflect our love for him.

So this first song, it's a call to worship. It's a big song, but we're going to have you remain seated. But just understand, and I hope and pray that as we continue to gather together week to week, that we come with a sober mind, that we come with a desire to see our God's name magnified.

Let's come and praise. Come praise and glorify our God, the Father of our Lord. In Christ he has in heavenly realms his blessings on us all. For pure and blameless in his sight, he destined us to be. And now we've been adopted through his Son eternally. Yes, Lord. To the praise of your glory, to the praise of your mercy and grace.

To the praise of your glory, you are the God who saved. Come praise. Come praise and glorify our God, who gives his grace in Christ. In him our sins are washed away, redeemed through sacrifice. In him God has made known to us the mystery of his will. Yes, that Christ.

That Christ should be the head of all, his purpose to fulfill. To the praise. To the praise of your glory, to the praise of your mercy and grace. To the praise of your glory, you are the God who saved. Come praise and glorify our God, for we believe the word.

And through our faith we have a seal, the Spirit of the Lord. The Spirit guarantees our hope until redemption's done. Until. Until we join in endless praise to God the free and one. Yes, Lord. To the praise of your glory, to the praise of your mercy and grace. To the praise of your glory, you are the God who saved.

To the praise of your glory, to the praise of your mercy and grace. To the praise of your glory, you are the God who saved. Amen. All right, good morning. Welcome to Breen Community Church. Let me get started with our announcements. First of all, just to kind of give you a heads up, we have a church -- all church praise and prayer that's coming up.

Not this coming Friday, but the Friday after, just to make sure that you put that on your calendar. Also, the family ministry retreat, again, August 12th through the 14th. So as you go outside, as you're entering to the cafe, you'll see a booth over there. If you haven't signed up yet, please go there and sign up after service.

At least let them know that you are planning to come to that. And then, SAM245, their meeting is going to be happening on 5/28. So if you've already signed up for it, you should have gone -- be getting contact and let you know what's going on with that. And then, summer VBS.

So those of you parents who have small children, elementary age, it's happening July 11th through the 15th. So the preparation for that is already happening. So they've already had several meetings to get things ready for that. So to kind of give you a heads up. And then, one last thing is that our service auction, the fundraiser for the adoption fund that's taking place, that's taking place tonight.

Tonight, online. So you should know what's going on. All the information is on the church membership page, the Facebook page. So if you don't have access to that, please try to get on that page if you're a member. And so all the information is there. So you can go there and then you can check out what kind of things are already there.

And then I think you can bid for that, I think, tonight. Tonight is the bidding. No? Huh? Two weeks. Okay, I got it wrong both services. Okay. So what's tonight then? Oh, they're bidding for two weeks. All right. You can read it yourself, but it's happening today. Okay? Starting today.

Right? There's nothing live going on. Close of auction. All right. I need to review this stuff before I get up here. Okay. All right. So let me give you a minute. I'm going to pray for us, our offering. Again, if you are new to our church, our physical offering box is in the back.

You can drop off your checks and cash or whatever you have in the back in that. But the rest of us will give you an opportunity to give electronically. All right, let's pray. Gracious Father, we thank you so much for this week. All the ups and downs, Lord God, of living in this fallen world.

The temptations that we struggle with. Our desire, Lord God, to be near you and yet being distracted constantly. Lord, we really need your grace to give us strength, help us to be focused, to continue to be united, Lord God, in our passion and pursuit of you. We ask, Lord God, that your spirit would lead and guide us so that what we engage in is not simply putting in our time, but true worship, Lord God, that you deserve.

I pray that even this offering may be given in true worship, in spirit and in truth. May it be multiplied for your use in your kingdom. 30, 60, 100 fold. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Church family, let's all rise together as we sing before our God. Praise to the Lord.

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation. Oh my soul praise him for he is the health and salvation. All ye who hear, now to his temple draw near. Praise him in glad adoration. Praise to the Lord, all things so wondrously reigning. Shelters they under his wings, yes, so gently sustaining.

Hast thou, hast thou not seen how thy desires have been granted in what he ordained? Praise to the Lord who doth prosper thy work in defending. Surely his goodness and mercy here daily attending. Ponder anew what the Almighty can do if with his love he be friendly. One more time, praise to the Lord.

Praise to the Lord, let all that is in me adore him. All that hath life have breathed down now with praises before him. Let the amen sound from his people again, and gladly for all ye adore him. Praise to the Lord, praise him. Who else commands all the hosts of heaven?

Who else can make every king bow down? Who else can whisper in darkness, tremble? Only a holy God. What other beauty demands such praises? What other splendor outshines the sun? What other majesty rules with justice? Only a holy God. Come and behold him, come and behold him, the one and the only.

Cry out, sing holy, forever a holy God. Come and worship the holy God. What other glory, what other glory consumes like fire? What other power can raise the dead? What other name remains undefeated? Only a holy God. Come and behold him, the one and the only. Cry out, sing holy, forever a holy God.

Come and worship the holy God. Come and behold him, the one and the only. Cry out, sing holy, forever a holy God. Come and worship the holy God. Who else could rescue me from my failing? Who else would offer his only son? Who else invites me to call him father?

Only a holy God. Only my holy God. Come and behold him, the one and the only. Cry out, sing holy, forever a holy God. Come and worship the holy God. Come and behold him, the one and the only. Cry out, sing holy, forever a holy God. Come and worship the holy God.

Amen, you may be seated. >> All right, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 1. Turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 1. I'm going to be reading from 17 through 25. Luke chapter 1, 17 through 25. Okay, reading the NASB. Let's pray. Gracious Father, we pray that your word would speak to us, revive us, renew us, help us to have a clear vision of Christ.

What he has done, who he is, what he has said. May it all have a deep impression in our hearts, Lord God, in our lives. That we may continue to be sanctified according to your will and purpose. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You know, one of the benefits of being at our church, I think, is that there's an emphasis on the word of God.

And I'm very encouraged to see so many of our church people who are engaged in the study of God's word, to the Bible study prepared, ready to engage. And so I believe if you're at our church, you are, again, not just at our church, but you are growing in knowledge of the word of God.

And so there's a benefit that you know more and more about what the Bible says. But the danger that also comes with being at a church where there's a heavy emphasis on the word of God is that you gain a lot of knowledge. And if you're not careful, one of the first things that happens to somebody where knowledge comes in is that you get puffed up.

That you tend to think that you are more mature than you really are because you have more knowledge of God's word. The power of the Bible is not knowledge. It's not you have more information. Now, information is important. Because not knowing what the word of God says, you can have passions that are not based on the word of God.

You can have passionate feelings and opinions of things that's not based on what the word of God says. But the power of the word is not knowledge. The power of the word is your faith. That when you hear the word of God, when you study the word of God, do you believe it?

And that's why Jesus says in John 11, when he was talking to Martha, he said, "For indeed, we have had good news preached to us, Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.' And he said, 'Do you believe this?'" Do you believe this?

That's the important part. Not did you hear it? Not can you recite it? Not do you know the intricate theology? Because the hardest people to be around, the most difficult people to be around, are people who throw out theology. Without affection for Christ. They can quote scripture without knowing who Jesus is.

And all it does is puff up and the word of God just becomes a tool to examine other people's lives. And it is a miserable person to be around when knowledge puffs up. Power of the word is at the end of the study, do you believe that? Do you believe that?

In Hebrews chapter 4, it says, "For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also, but the word that they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard." So the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian are those people who heard the word of God, who heard the gospel, and did they believe it?

Did they actually believe it? And it's also true of sanctification. Sanctification isn't simply behaving a certain way. Sanctification is you hear the word of God. Every Sunday, every Bible study, you hear the word of God, but the next question after you've heard, after you've studied, after you've memorized, is do you believe that?

Because until you believe that, there is no change, other than adding more knowledge. There is no transformation taking place. Your life doesn't look any different than what other people value, except your peers are in the church. So because your peers are in the church, the pressure you feel is not from the world, the pressure you feel is in the church.

So you try to compete with other Christians to be more knowledgeable, to be more godly, to know the Bible more. And so you conform to all of this because you're trying to move up the recognition ladder in the church. But it's not breaking you. It's not humbling you. Your love for Christ isn't growing.

The way we look at eternity hasn't changed. In fact, it's a miserable place to be when we have a church filled with people who are growing in knowledge without growing brokenness and affection for Christ. Because the key to everything that we are learning is the question, do you believe?

Not do they believe it. Not what do they say. Who do you say Jesus is? Do you believe it? The text that we're looking at this morning, in Zacharias' response and the angel Gabriel's response to Zacharias' unbelief, gives us some insight as to not only what God does with them, but how God deals with us.

It says in Luke 1, 17, after he gives his prophesy, this old couple answered prayer for them and through them answered prayer for the nation of Israel, that their Messiah would come and deliver them. Zacharias said to the angel, "How will I know this for certain, for I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years?" Now we can understand why Zacharias had a hard time believing this.

Because he was already advanced in years. Humanly it's impossible. He wasn't simply tweaking certain things. He's saying something supernatural is going to happen. It's like, how am I going to know this? And on top of that, God hasn't spoken through a prophet for over 400 years. So this was not a regular occurrence in the nation of Israel.

Every priest that went in there to burn incense didn't come out speaking to the angel. There were 400 years of dead silence and then finally when he speaks, he says something supernatural is going to happen. So we can understand that other human beings, why he had a hard time believing this.

Now this is not new. If you look at redemptive history, we see men and women whom God has chosen because of their faith to work mighty things and yet they themselves struggled with this. Remember Abraham? God calls him out. He walks out to the desert risking his life, family's life, all because of the simple promise that God made.

That if you follow me, I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and all the other nations will be blessed by you. And yet, if you look at Abraham's life, as he was wandering and following God, remember there were periods when he was so scared for his own life that he would lie about his wife and say, "Hey, make sure that you say you're my sister." And so we see a fragile man, even though there was a man of faith, he was a fragile man, just like us.

Remember Sarah? Finally when God says that they're going to give him a son, just like he promised, remember how she responded? She laughed in unbelief. And as a result, God says, "Your child is going to be named Laughter," just to remind you how you responded. Remember Gideon? How God raises up Gideon and that he was going to dwindle down his army to a few hundred people to overcome tens of thousands of Midianites and Gideon's response is like, "Well, how am I going to know that you're really going to do this?" So he says, "Send out a fleece and it's going to keep it dry," and he's like, "to prove." Like God telling him wasn't enough.

He's like, "Prove yourself." He struggled with doubt. Remember Hezekiah? When he was a prophet that came, that he was going to die, and then he pleaded with the Lord and then he asked God, "How am I going to know this is going to happen? How am I going to stop or to move forward?" And so we see this pattern repeated through mighty men, men who are supposed to represent faith at certain periods of time, they doubt it.

If we're honest with ourselves, we're no different. I think the greatest struggle that we have is faith. Sometimes our faith feels so small. Even as we say we believe, even as we profess, even as we surrendered our life to Christ, from time to time, we feel like our faith is no bigger than a mustard seed.

I mean, just practically speaking, when we see Matthew 7, 7, it says, "Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you." I mean, we memorize that passage and we teach that to Sunday school, but the power of that passage is not, is not that do you know this passage, have you memorized this passage, have you dissected this passage, have you exegeted this passage, have you preached this passage?

The power of that passage is do you believe it? That if you seek, you will find. If you knock, you will open. If you ask, you will answer. Because if you believe it, you would pursue, you would ask, you would knock. But part of the reason we struggle with that is because we hear it, but it's not coupled with faith.

You guys know that passage, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you." You know that passage. If you grew up in Sunday school, you may have memorized that passage. But the power of that passage is not, do you know it, did you memorize it, did you tell other people about it, but do you believe it?

That if you seek His kingdom, if you put His kingdom first, that God will take care of all the other stuff. How much of our lives is flipped the other way? If I take care of all the other stuff, and I'll leave the stuff that I can't do in God's hands.

And the reason why we live like that is because we profess this, we teach this, we exegete this. But when we ask, do you believe it? We don't have confidence. We struggle. He who finds his life will lose it. He who loses his life for my sake will find it.

We know that's the fundamental thing that Jesus taught. And when He was going to the cross, He said, "You must also pick up the cross and follow me." Deny yourself. This is the fundamental thing that is taught in discipleship. But again, the power of these words is not, do you know it, have you heard it, can you exposit it, do you know the context of it?

But the question is, do you believe it? Do you believe that if you live your life to make something of yourself, you will lose it? Do you believe that all the pursuits of life, so that you can have a better life here, that you're pursuing something that eventually is going to ruin your life?

Do you believe that forfeiting all the temptations of the world will actually lead to greater life? Do you believe that? Not do you know that, have you studied that, memorized that, but do you believe that? Because if we believed it, our life would change. Our pursuit would change. We struggle with that.

Finally, in Romans 8.32 it says, "He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not along with us give us all things?" Think how inconsistent our faith is. From week to week, to sing songs about God himself took on human form and he gave himself while we were yet sinners.

He died for us. How will he not? If you believe and we sing, we memorize, and we preach the gospel to other people, that this is what God has done for us, and yet day to day we struggle with, does God really care? Is God actually listening? Is he really going to take care of my needs?

And so we work hard to take care of all this other stuff, and then only the things that we feel like we have no power over, we just kind of hand it over to him. So again, the power of these words is not do you know it, have you studied it, did you exegete it, did you memorize it, have you taught other people about it, but at the end, do you believe it?

Do you believe it? In response to Zacharias' doubting, the angel says in verse 19, "I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news." Now, for us, we say, "Oh, I am Gabriel." What does that mean?

A Jew would have immediately understood when he says, "I am Gabriel," because the Bible actually only names three angels. Number one, Archangel Michael. And again, they're not everywhere, but when you look him up, Archangel Michael is the chief angel. And whenever you see Archangel Michael appear in the Bible, he's in some kind of battle.

He's the one fighting with the dragon in the book of Revelations. He's the one who is gathering the other angels and basically going to war, spiritual war. That's Archangel Michael. He's the chief of the angels. The other angel that's mentioned in the Bible is Lucifer. Lucifer basically was a worshiper.

He was the chief worshiper in God's creation. But instead of worshipping God in the context of worship, he was trying to get worship himself. Just like, you know, he was a great worshipper. Imagine if you met the best worship leader that you've ever met in your life, and he is trying to get attention for himself as he is worshipping.

So he may be the most skilled, but he's the least person that you want up there. And that's exactly what Lucifer was. Lucifer's rebellion is that he wants worship for himself. Isaiah 14, 12-14, it says, "How you have fallen from heaven, O star of morning, son of dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations, but you said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven.

I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recess of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High.'" And that's Lucifer. So you have the Archangel Michael who is in conflict with Lucifer.

Typically we think God is in conflict with Satan. Right? The good and the bad. That God is good and Satan is bad. Satan is under God's sovereign control. Every time Satan, Lucifer, needs to do something, he has to get permission from God. The conflict that the Bible describes is a conflict between Archangel Michael.

In fact, in Jude chapter 9 it says, "But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you.'" So the two other angels that are mentioned in the Bible is Archangel Michael, who is in conflict with Lucifer.

So the only other angel that is named in the Bible is Gabriel. Gabriel appears in Daniel chapter 8, Daniel chapter 9, and he's the one who was sent as a messenger to interpret the dreams that was coming through the people at that time. And so Gabriel is widely understood in the Jewish community as the messenger of God.

So when Zacharias hears when he says, "I am Gabriel," I mean he would have known immediately. My guess is he probably was floored. He was to the ground, he was like, "Oh my gosh." Gabriel is here. That's what he means because the promise, the promise of the angel is only good as the one who is promising.

And that's why we have credit scores, right? Like if your credit is like 500 or 400, you signing a name on something doesn't mean a whole lot, right? Because you just don't have good credit. So when he says, "I am Gabriel," in other words he's saying, "I am the one who stands in the presence of God." In other words what he's saying, what I am saying to you is from God himself.

That's how he answers his doubt. I am Gabriel. I am the one sent from God. That's exactly what happens, remember, when Moses asked the Lord in Exodus chapter 3, "When you send me to Pharaoh and to the Israelites, who are you to demand that my people be set free?

What do I say to them? Tell them," what? "I am has sent you." You're not going with your authority. You're not speaking on your behalf. I didn't choose you because you are the most articulate. I didn't choose you because you are the greatest leader. Tell them, "I am has sent you." The power comes from the sender, not the messenger.

So when Gabriel says, "I am Gabriel," the one who stands in the presence of God is speaking to you, he says, "That should confirm for you." You know, typically, we ask ourselves in the end, I said, "The power of everything that we're studying is at the end, do you believe this?" Right?

Not, "Do you know this?" Nobody cares what you know. Let me say that. Okay, does it sound harsh? Nobody cares what you know. Let me say it one more time, right? Nobody cares what you know. If it fills you with pride. If what you know doesn't lead you to point to a greater Christ, nobody not only cares what you know, nobody wants to hear what you know.

The question is, "Do you believe this?" Do you believe this is the word of God? That God is speaking to you? What do you say? Who do you say Jesus is? Do you believe this? You know, the typical way that somebody would dismiss the word of God, if you've ever tried to evangelize, and say, "Oh, the word of God," and say, "I don't believe the word of God," because it was written by man, right?

Have you heard that before? That's a common argument against this being the word of God. "Oh, the man put it together, the church put it together." And so if the church put it together, if man wrote it, it can't be divine. That's usually the argument that you will hear.

I like what R.C. Sproul says about this subject, and he says, "The reason we doubt the word of God is not because his word is unbelievable or not credible, but because we project unto God the trustworthiness that describes our own condition. Let every man be a liar, but God's word is true." The reason why they put forth that if it came through human hands, we don't trust it because we don't trust man.

We don't trust each other. Man doesn't have good credit. That's basically what he's saying. 2 Peter 1, 16-21, Peter, James, and John sees the transfiguration, hears the audible voice of God, and God appears and says, "This is my son in whom I am well pleased." But God tells him, Jesus tells him, "Don't say anything yet because it's not time." But this is how Peter describes that incident.

"For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to him by the majestic glory, 'This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.' And we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain." He's talking about the transfiguration.

Can you imagine that impact that it must have had on him? He's talking about the transfiguration and he says, "Don't tell anything." And then he finally gets to tell people, "Man, you know what I saw. I actually heard the audible voice of God." We've been walking with Jesus but his glory was veiled.

But for the first time, that veil was lifted so we could see him and God spoke to us physically. But look what he says, 19. "So we have the prophetic word made more sure." More sure than what? What he saw. More sure than what he heard audibly. The prophetic word.

"To which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart." Rising in your heart through what? Through God's word. "But know this first of all that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." So he's saying God has not ordained miracles to bring you to Christ.

God has not ordained supernatural audible hearings so that you can commune with God. God has not ordained miracles so that you can hear him. He says God has ordained his very breath in the word of God to make it sure. So the question that we need to ask is do you believe that this is the word of God?

Do you believe that this is the word of God? Do you believe that this is the word of God? Do you believe that this is the word of God? Do you believe it? Not are you studying it? Not are you meditating on it? Not are you telling other people?

Not are you handling it accurately? But even before any of that do you believe this? Do you believe that Jesus is the only way? Truly the only way? That there is judgment coming? That the book of Revelation is not just some fairy tale? That hell is not just something that was written just to just to tickle our imagination?

But it's real. That heaven is real. That Jesus Christ died for us, for me, is real. My sins have been washed away. It's real. That if you seek his kingdom first that all these things shall be added unto you is real. That he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all?

That he who did not along with him give us everything else? Is real. If you truly believe. If you doubt, that's where your struggle needs to be. Part of the reason why there is so little attention given to the diligent study of the word of God, I believe, is because we wrestle with faith.

We don't really believe. Or we struggle with belief. I mean, if I told you that you got a letter from your favorite basketball star and it was seven page and it was written to you, my guess is you would take time to read it. If you don't like sports, it's completely irrelevant.

Movie star? I don't know. Your favorite person? I don't know. Somebody you love? That girl that you've been praying for so dearly has written in response. And you get that letter. And then you realize it's like six pages. Six pages? I've got time to read that. Six pages? If you responded like that, I would say, "Ah, you're not interested." Your natural response would be, "Only six pages?" You combed through that letter.

What does she mean by "hello"? (laughter) Look at the big letters. Why is there a comma there? XOXO. And you would examine every part of that letter because every part of that letter is personal to you. If you believe that this is God's Word, that God wrote it to you, to talk to you, to bring you to Him, to tell you how much He loves you, the warnings that He gives you, to tell us how to live, to tell us what it's going to be like after we die, to tell us where the power lies, to tell us about our children.

I mean, it's been given to us. But our struggle is, do we believe? Do we actually believe that? You know, sometimes, because we were raised in a church, we just assume we believe. Of course I believe it. And you just kind of give a knee-jerk reaction. But look at the way you respond to that.

Because sometimes we can easily fool ourselves. I remember when I first became a Christian, the first person that I was so excited to share that I became a Christian was this co-worker. My dad used to work at this medical supply company. And as he was pastor, that was his side job.

So during the summer, I went with him to work for about three months. And one of his co-workers, in my mind, he was like the most sincere Christian I've ever met. He always has his Bible. Every opportunity he had, he was reading it in between. And then every opportunity he got, he was sharing it with people.

So when I became a Christian, he's the first guy I wanted to tell. So he came to my mom's dry cleaner store, and I took a break because I wanted to tell him what happened. Because every break, he was trying to share with me about God. And I was like, "Oh, I'm a Christian." So I sat down, and we had probably about an hour worth of conversation.

And I can't even remember exactly what he said because I didn't know a whole lot about the Bible other than the things that I learned in Sunday school. But he said something that triggered. It's like something's weird. And I asked him, "Are you a Jehovah Witness?" And I could tell that just kind of like boom.

Like he didn't want to tell me that, but he admitted because I asked him, "Are you a Jehovah Witness?" And obviously, boom, the walls went up. Right? I have to be careful. Again, to this day, I have no idea what triggered that because I didn't know anything about Jehovah Witnesses.

It must have been something that maybe my dad said that I kind of picked up subconsciously. And then boom, it went up. And then that encounter with him messed me up because this is the most strongest Christian I've ever met, at least in my mind. I mean, he takes his faith seriously than any other person that I've met.

How do I know that what I believe is true? How can I be so confident? Because he seemed to believe just as strong. So I went on this journey. Even as I was professing as a Christian, in the back of my mind, I needed to know for sure. What if I say I'm a Protestant because I was born in a Protestant home?

My dad's a pastor, so that was the only access that I had. So I began a journey to look for myself. So every opportunity I got, I started to study different religions. And every extra elective class I had, I would study Buddhism and different Muslims and different things and would come back.

And the conclusion was, Christianity made the most sense. But the next question was, then which Christianity, which version of Christianity made more sense? Mormonism? They say they have their Bible Well, obviously, at the conclusion of that, and it wasn't a specific day that that happened, but after years of wrestling with this, my conclusion is not even close.

I mean, the Word of God, to me, without a doubt, proved itself that this is God's Word. And I could tell you all the extracurricular stuff where archaeological finds fulfilled prophecies, the copies of manuscripts, and how it was handled, scrutinized for thousands of years, and how it destroyed the credibility of the Word of God, and the other Bibles were just, you trust a guy who is discredited.

I mean, I can tell you about the stuff that I found. And it was almost impossible to believe their claim. And even if you don't believe it, it's very difficult to dismiss. But since then, I can tell you with full conviction, the greatest revelation of God's Word is the Word itself.

All this extra stuff, those are good to have, right, as argument. But when you dive into the Word of God, you see the roots underneath the Word of God. On the surface, you read the words, and you see the connections, and you see how the themes are connected. But the more you dive into the Word of God, you'll see the roots underneath that connects thousands of years of authors and themes, like just connected, one theme after another.

And I couldn't understand, it's like everything points to Christ. You know, as a young Christian, it's like, okay, I guess it is. But it is amazing. There is no way that a human being, no matter how wise, how smart, could have put this together in 1,500 years, 45 different men to have brought this together.

And the more you see the roots underneath, you sense the breath of God in His Word. I don't know how many times I'm doing quiet time, and just instinctively, I hear myself say, "Wow. Wow." Because I get to see a glimpse of God through the Word. And many times it's through the same thing I'm looking at.

I've preached through almost every part of the Bible. Did quiet time numerous times on every part of the Bible. And even now as I'm going through it, it's like, "Wow." Because I still, it's living and active. The words that it says, now as a 54-year-old, in the stage of life, my perspective is completely different.

And it looks very different than when I was 16, or 20, or 30, or 40. And every time it's just living and active. It's never dead. It's hard for me to explain to you what it's like to be a Christian. And I'm not saying that you should be a Christian.

I'm not saying that you should be a Christian. I'm saying that you should be a Christian. And I'm not saying that you should be a Christian. I'm saying that you should be a Christian. And I'm not saying that you should be a Christian. I'm saying that you should be a Christian.

I'm not saying that you should be a Christian. I'm saying that you should be a Christian. I'm not saying that you should be a Christian. I'm saying that you should be a Christian. I'm not saying that you should be a Christian. I'm saying that you should be a Christian.

I'm not saying that you should be a Christian. I'm not saying that you should be a Christian. I'm not saying that you should be a Christian. I'm not saying that you should be a Christian. I'm not saying that you should be a Christian. I'm not saying that you should be a Christian.

I'm not saying that you should be a Christian. I'm not saying that you should be a Christian. ♪ The times that I face ♪ ♪ You are worth it ♪

Sunday Service 5/15/2022

Transcript